It’s the question that canine owners have wondered throughout time: “Can my dog smell my farts?” The classic indicator is a nose thrust into the air, sniffing this way and that as your dog tries to track down where this new odor is coming from. Not all dogs are as comfortable with human farts as others.
While humans have around 5 tor 6 million olfactory receptors in our noses, dogs have anywhere between 125 million to 300 million. If that's not enough, the portion of their brain devoted to analyzing smells is, from a proportional point of view, a massive 40 times bigger than our own. This means that a dog's sense of smell is at least 10,000 times better than ours.
In the modern world, dogs and their noses can do some incredible things. Canines work with law enforcement agencies to sniff out everything from drugs, explosives, illegal items to fugitives on the run.
The dog's sense of smell is also put to work in fields as diverse as sniffing out truffles or detecting prohibited agricultural products at the border. Studies have even shown that dogs have the ability to sniff out some forms of cancer in humans. Humans sometimes try to cover up a loud fart by blaming it on the dog, who knows better. Farting is a healthy, humorous fact of life. What should we all know about the common fart?
The
average, healthy individual passes gas between 15 and 20-times per day. Your
workplace is literally a swirling room of human farts right now. Gas (farting
and burping) is meant to relieve abdominal discomfort that’s pent up after too
much air enters the gastrointestinal (GI) tract via breathing, eating, or even
due to certain foods that don’t agree with the digestive system. It produces excess
gas in the colon.
The
source of excess air will normally determine if your fart will smell or not.
While we’ve established that excess air breathed in (or swallowed) via external
sources (like laughing hysterically or drinking soda) is largely a combination
of nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide which contain zero odor and likely
won’t stink up the place. Farts that accumulate in the GI tract due to bacteria
can seriously clear the room with that telltale rotten egg smell. This is
because bacteria that produces gas contains sulfur.
Beans
and legumes are more difficult for the human digestive system to break down.
When slow digestion occurs, the nutrients from the stubborn food pass into the
colon and become the byproduct of bacterial digestion, which can be quite painful.
Experiencing
gas due to constipation is a literal roadblock inside your gastrointestinal
(GI) tract. You’ll usually feel and see the symptoms of gas-related
constipation (abdominal pains, stomach bloating, trembling tummy discomfort)
before you realize your system is blocked.
Processed
foods are never a high point of anyone’s diet. However, highly processed foods
that contain additives like artificial sugars (i.e., candy, cereal, juices,
sugar-free gum, and soda) can turn your digestive system into a roller coaster
wrought with gas and abdominal cramps.
In
particular, artificial sweeteners that go by names like mannitol and sorbitol
have been linked to excess gas, bloating, and diarrhea in those who typically
have little GI distress. Both sorbitol and mannitol contain high amounts of
hydrogen, which means they have laxative affects when un-absorbed residual
sugar gets digested by bacteria in your intestine.
Irritable
bowel syndrome (IBS) is a digestive disorder that medical professionals
consider when the digestive system is dysfunctional. Often when the improper
absorption of carbohydrates causes gut bacteria go into hyper-drive or when
bacteria simply overgrows in the small intestine (SIBO).
Smelling
gas, bloating, paralyzing abdominal cramps, constipation, bleeding, and
diarrhea are no longer normal when caused by an auto-immune disease.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) includes Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative
Colitis along different sections of the GI tract. While Celiac Disease causes
the immune system to attack the small intestine when even a tiny bit of gluten
is consumed.
Although
these auto-immune diseases differ greatly, they all tend to cause chronic pain,
inflammation, foul smelling gas, and improper absorption of food nutrients.
Call your doctor immediately if you suspect the presence of an auto-immune
disorder. Gas and bloating can also be the result of an intestinal blockage,
several types of cancer, and diverticulitis.
“Sugar is sweet. Lemons are
tart. I love you more than a unicorn
fart.” (Minions)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“Can
Dogs Smell Human Farts?” by wagwalking.com
·
“Let’s Shoot the Breeze about Gas” by: Emily Lockhart
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